


Leftover Breakfast, Cereal For Lunch

by marquisdegayaf



Category: In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: Siblings, body image issues mentioned, eating breakfast food at lunch/dinner time, sonny and vanessa are best o' friends yo, the invention of the word lena
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-06 23:53:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8774689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marquisdegayaf/pseuds/marquisdegayaf
Summary: "she's drunk on old cartoons, liquid tv afternoons"sonny and vanessa vs sunday





	

It’s four pm on a sunday in autumn. The city is moving a little slower than usual, Vanessa notes as she looks out the sitting room window. She can see bennett park glowing in the golden afternoon light, the kids are playing a slow, non competitive game of handball and the piraguero is chatting to one of their moms. She can smell the new batch of bread Usnavi’s made from downstairs in the bodega. There is a soft, blue blanket over her crossed legs and a mug of peppermint tea in her hands. All these things combined with the small warm presence by her side are making this afternoon seem fairly idyllic. 

 

The aforementioned presence is Sonny, who is curled into a tiny ball with the blanket pulled up to his chin, making the softest, sweetest sleepy noises Vanessa’s ever heard. He’s like a puppy, Vanessa think as she looks down at his mess of curls, a tiny bisexual puppy with an overworking issue. He had burst into the sitting room of the apartment which Vanessa is currently sharing with him and Usnavi around midday, dark circles under his eyes and with the look of a man who has seen hell. He took two steps forward, made a whining voice and collapsed on the sofa next to Vanessa, who just nodded and pulled the blanket over them both. It transpired that he had pulled an allnighter to plan his school’s model united nations conference single handedly, hopped up on coffee and typing at eighty words a minute. Vanessa understands, she hails from the same school of workaholic-ism. It’s not like Nina’s school of workaholic-ism, which involves doing all the work she has to do in one night, it’s creating new work to do. Sonny doesn’t need to do all the work by himself. He could’ve delegated. Vanessa doesn’t need to rearrange all the nail polishes in the salon by colour. She could’ve waited. 

 

Sonny stirs in his sleep, turns over, stretches and rubs his eyes. He looks around, a little confused for a moment, before focusing on Vanessa and mumbling something nondescript. She grins, “mornin’, sleepyhead.” Sonny murmurs something in response and rests his head on her legs, smiling slightly. She pats his hair. It’s sticking up at all angles, wiry but not in a bad way. Vanessa’s worked with enough different hair types to have unlearnt her society-conditioned bias against textured hair. Sonny looks up at her with such a degree of awe that Vanessa almost laughs. She’s not used to this kind of platonic admiration. She’s used to being adored by her mom and dad, of course, because they’re family, and with Nina and Dani and Carla because they’re as good as family, but the whole sibling thing still feels new to her, even though she’s known Sonny for 90% of his life. It’s nice to have someone looking up to her. She’s never felt like that before. She realises Sonny is laughing at her quietly and smacks him lightly in the head, making him laugh even harder. Vanessa glares at him as he sits up and bites back a smile before speaking, “que hora es?”  
“Cuatro.”  
“Navi gets back at nine. Can you play Super Mario?”  
“Kiddo, I kill at Super Mario.”  
“Wanna bet?”

 

Two hours later they’re still sitting hunched over in front of the TV, hammering at their respective gameboy controllers. Sonny screws up his nose when he’s concentrating. Vanessa taps her foot. Sonny plays as Bowser. Vanessa plays as Daisy. Sonny puts up a good fight. Vanessa wins thirty five out of forty five games. Sonny is a sore loser. Vanessa is worse. They stop playing at seven when Sonny’s thumbs start twitching from overuse and Vanessa is satisfied that yes, she has well and truly beaten him. 

 

The kitchen is illuminated in warm, pink light when they stumble in to get what Sonny dubs ‘lena’ (lunch + cena), because they both forgot to eat lunch. He fiddles with the bluetooth speakers as Vanessa pours two bowls of lucky charms (the extent of her culinary abilities). Sonny has strawberry milk on his cereal. Vanessa calls him a heathen. She’s putting the two different types of milk back in the fridge when Sonny finally gets the speakers working. He hops up on the counter to eat his cereal, swaying happily to the soft song which floods the room. She sits at the table with her feet up on the counter, spooning cereal into her mouth with little regard for the fact that Usnavi would have an aneurysm if he saw their current setup. She’s happy just to sit there in silence, eating her cereal with her hair messy, shirt dirty, socks mismatched and makeup remnants smudges under her eyes. She imagines she must look a little like a panda right now. She could care less. 

 

Sonny is in a similar state, he’s wearing the turquoise tank top-style binder Nina bought him, black sleeping shorts and pink socks. He looks sweet. Just as Vanessa’s thinking that Sonny mumbles “I like y’hair” through his last garishly pink spoonful of cereal. She thanks him and he grins. When Nessa stands up to get more cereal she gestures at him with the box. Sonny shakes his head.  
“You sure? You haven’t eaten all day, dude.” He shrugs.  
“Es whatever. I gotta…”, he pinches the chub of his tummy, “...Anyways.” Vanessa purses her lips and raises an eyebrow.  
“Dude…” She doesn’t know what to say, “Sonny… Vato… You don’t gotta do that.” He gives her a quizzical look. She breathes in deeply. “Imagine… Imagine my body's a little kid. A baby.”  
“...Ok..”  
“Now, like, think about it. If the baby was eating’ some lucky charms. Imagine this tiny baby kid hadn’t eaten all day. The baby needs the lucky charms, right?”  
“Right?”  
“Right. So the baby’s eaten some lucky charms. Just those. It can’t just eat those, right?”  
“Right.”  
“So you’d give the baby more lucky charms?”  
“Claro.” Vanessa grins and makes a big, explosion-like gesture:  
“Boom! Your body is the baby! Give the baby the lucky charms, Jefferson!” He actually cracks a smile at that,  
“My name is not short for Jefferson!”  
“Sure, honey. Eat the damn cereal.” She passes him more cereal with more milk and a soft smile. And he eats. And she smiles.

 

When Usnavi walks in two hours later Vanessa and Sonny are laying on the sitting room floor, watching the cracks in the ceiling.  
“That one could be a hat.”  
“Bullshit. It’s a lightning bolt.”  
“They’re all lighting bolts, Sonny. Use your imagination.”  
“Well… That one’s a slightly bigger lightning bolt.”  
“Become an author, please.” Sonny pokes her in the shoulder and he snorts. Usnavi laughs at both of them, half because they’re stupid and half because he loves them.

**Author's Note:**

> the song sonny plays while they're in their kitchen, and where i got the title from, is season two episode three by glass animals!!! if u liked this hmuu


End file.
